Runaway
by DarthBubbles
Summary: Wolfe Armstrong, a human-avian hybrid, has a mission: to find Maximum Ride, against all odds. Battling fierce Erasers and crazed scientists, Wolfe tracks her across America. Rated K for now, may move up to T for violence and some language.
1. Prologue

My name is Wolfe. Wolfe Armstrong, actually. Not bad for a name that I thought of myself, huh? Wolves are pretty amazing, if you don't combine them with humans. So, you know, add the 'e' to the end and it looks and sounds cool. And Armstrong. I know, you're thinking 'Neil Armstrong,' the guy who first set foot on the moon. Come on, just because one of my kind named herself after an astronaut doesn't mean I have to. Lance Armstrong? I admit, he's cool, but no. Actually, I'm a huge fan of Green Day, so… yeah, you can probably see where I'm going. Billie Joe Armstrong.

Now, what do I mean exactly when I say 'my kind?' Well, when I was a kid, crazy scientists somehow got me away from my parents and started doing some tests on me and some other kids. Long story short… Somehow I ended up two percent bird, ninety eight percent human.

If you know anything about Maximum Ride, then you probably get the idea of what I look like. Yeah… Wings sprouting from my back, the whole package of bird stuff. At least they didn't screw up my face or anything like they did with the Erasers. Wolves and humans… not as fine tuned and good looking as birds and humans. And that's not me bragging, that's a fact.

Seven years ago, I escaped the scientists and their prison/scientific facility, the School. Nobody noticed. Supposedly, I'd been exterminated. I had been giving the scientists a rough time, so they got one of their men to kill me. You know, there's plenty of bird kids out there. They could afford to let one go. Thing was… the guy who was s'posed to kill me thought some other dude was going to do the job. So really, according to the world, I'm dead.

But I'm not. And what I have to say is almost as important as what Max has to say. Sure, I don't have any destiny to save the world. But still, I try and help any way I can. Besides, If you're not interested, you would have stopped reading halfway through the 'Armstrong' explanation. You didn't, though. And I'm going to trust you to keep on reading. 'Cause trust me, it's more that exciting enough to keep you focused once you get into it. And you'll get my message.

I'm counting on support from humans, too. Full, one hundred percent humans. You're one of them. So, yeah, I need your help. I'm not sure how to start this… so I'll just do dive in, and hope you will understand.

**-Wolfe Armstrong**


	2. Trees and Spiders

**Trees and Spiders**

"Come on, Wolfe!" Jordan whispered, shaking me by the shoulder.

I groaned and pulled away from the light touch of her fingertips. She sighed and tried to shake me again.

"Seriously, I need to talk to you, Wolfe. I don't want to wake up the others."

"Wha?" I asked groggily, rolling over on the branch I had been sleeping on. I slid off, falling through the leaves of the tall tree. Quickly, I unfurled my jet black wings and caught myself, wincing as one hit yet another branch. I flew smoothly back up to the top and landed next to Jordan. "Nothing wakes you up better than falling from a tree," I said with a grin.

She rolled her chestnut eyes, but nonetheless smiled. "Smooth." She frowned at me for a moment. "You might want to cut your hair. It's starting to make you look emo."

My hands flew self consciously towards my dark brown hair. "What's wrong with it. You know I'm not emo, and it's not like we're gonna be looking for attention anyways."

Jordan put her hands up in front of her in a gesture of self defense. "Hey, I like it like that. I'm just saying."

"Look, I know you didn't wake me up to tell me to cut my hair. What's this about?"

"I think we need to find a place to settle down. All this running is making the kids tired, and we haven't seen any Erasers around for months."

"Maybe they've found some other mutant freaks to chase," I said. "They'll come back. They always do. I don't want any of us getting hurt again."

Jordan bit her lip, then comfortingly put an arm on my shoulder. "Zeke wasn't your fault."

I glanced over at the redheaded boy, sleeping soundly in the tree. Because it was me who had made the decision to settle down, Zeke had gotten mauled by an Eraser and had lost all use of his right arm. That was nearly a year ago, and even though everyone told me I wasn't to blame, I still held myself responsible. Only Jordan knew that.

There's five of us by the way, all of varying ages. There's me, I'm sixteen, Jordan, who's fifteen, Stormy, who's thirteen, Jack is eleven, and Zeke, who's eight. Anyways, back to me and Jordan.

"We can't," I said. "It's too risky."

Jordan nodded. "I guess so. Looks like dawn's come. Should we head out?"

I looked at the dimly lit, grey Massachusetts sky. "Yeah."

She and I proceeded to wake the others, who were strung across several branches and trees. When everyone was up, we sat perched on a bough, preparing to take off into the morning. "I'm hungry," Stormy complained. "What's for breakfast?"

Jack grinned at her, then picked a bug up from a branch. "Spiders!" he said.

Stormy's face twisted into one of pure disgust. "Oh, _gross_, Jack. He's not serious, is he, Wolfe?"

"Afraid so, Stormy," I said, keeping a straight face.

Jordan laughed. "Okay, that's enough. We're not eating bugs, Stormy."

I checked our wallet, which was unsurprisingly light. "Anybody want breakfast off the dollar menu at McDonalds?"

Zeke summed up all the others' answers up in one word. "Yes."

I grinned and leapt off the thick branch, letting my wings catch the wind. I flapped down hard, and rose into the air. Moments later, I could see Jordan's maroon wings in my peripheral vision. That meant that the other kids had taken off smoothly.

I slowed down, and Jordan coasted up next to me. "We really have enough money for McDonald's?"

I grimaced. "We have thirty bucks."

"Thirty? Wolfe, you know that we need to keep some money at had at all times. This is barely going to feed us, even if it is off the dollar menu!"

"We can make some more," I said. "Don't worry."

"It would be better if we could just stay in one place and get jobs as normal teenagers!"

"Guess what, Jordan. We're not normal teenagers!" I snapped. I regretted it once I saw the hurt look on her face. But I needed to get my frustration out, and I had my opportunity. "I'm freaking part bird! I have wings! I've been on the run since I was nine! Part wolf mutants are out to kill me when I'm just a freaking kid!! And what's worse, my parents let this happen. They didn't care! They sold me to science!"

Jordan was silent. I glanced back at her, her blonde hair whipping her in the face. I felt sorry, but I said nothing. I was afraid I'd blow up at her again. "I'm sorry, Wolfe," she said. "I know life is hard. But we're all in the same boat here. We've come together because of all those things that happened, and we've become stronger for it."

She was sorry? Well, that made me feel like a total jerk. I sighed and shook my head. "Look, Jordan. I'm the one who should be apologizing," I said. "I shouldn't have blown up at you like that. It's not your fault we have wings. You're not to blame for us being on the run. You're my best friend, my right hand in leading this crazy group of kids. You know as well as I do that I couldn't get on without your help. You're right, we have become stronger. And one day… One day the odds will work out in our favor."

She smiled. "You can't know that."

"It'll happen. I promise."


	3. Sausage McMuffins

**Sausage McMuffins**

As expected, Boston was bustling with activity even in the early morning hours. Trust me, if there's a time when you want to get lost in the crowd, Boston Massachusetts is a great idea. I mean, there are all kinds of people _everywhere,_ so there are bound to be a few freaky ones, right? Therefore, the citizens can handle the tall, muscular kids with small lumps coming out of their backs from underneath their shirts.

I banked to the left, in front of Jordan, and came in quickly. I landed on a rooftop somewhat awkwardly, and waited. Behind me, Stormy dropped lightly to the ground, followed by Jack. Zeke skidded to a halt in front of me, a wide grin spread across his face. When Jordan landed next to me, I knew it was safe to proceed.

"Nice landing," she said to me as we climbed down the building via a fire escape.

I shrugged. "Thanks."

Stormy laughed. "Even _I_ did better than you Wolfe!"

I grinned at her. "Wanna bet?"

Before she could figure out the full meaning of what I said, I leaned backward and let go of the fire escape railing, free falling toward the concrete of the alleyway below. I shrugged off my jacket and held it clumped up in one hand. I thought I heard Jordan say, "He's such an idiot," before I fell out of earshot. The ground raced up at me with alarming speed, and I unfurled my wings and pushed down hard against the air. I hung suspended in mid air, then slowly made my way down the extra ten feet before touching the cement. I tugged on my jacket and waited as the others dropped off the fire escape from ten stories above as I had done.

"How's that for a landing?" I asked Stormy, and she rolled her eyes.

"You didn't even check to see if anyone was down here!" Jordan said angrily. "Someone could've seen you!"

"Nobody saw me, Jordan," I said irritatingly. "Lighten up." Inside, I knew that she was right. I was lucky that no one was in the alleyway. But she's always right, and I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that just yet.

She shook her head but said nothing. Instead, she led the way to McDonalds, and I silently fell into step behind everyone else. Zeke's head bobbed up and down in front of me as he nearly skipped the whole way. His bad arm dangled uselessly by his side. Poor kid. I made him lose a lot. I must have looked pretty depressed, because as I walked through the door of the fast food restaurant that Jordan was holding open, she put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a concerned look.

"We should order separately," I said, refusing to let her in on what I was thinking at the moment. Not when the kids were nearby. "That way the cashier won't give us strange looks when we order more than we can carry."

She nodded, and sent Zeke to get a booth for us. I distributed the money between Jordan, Stormy, Jack, and I, and we ordered eighteen sausage McMuffins altogether. Zeke's face lit up when he saw us carrying our loot to the table he had chosen in the back.

"Back door to the direct left, front door forward and to the right, and there's and emergency exit to the side. There's also a back door from the kitchens, if we need it," he said.

Jordan smiled and ruffled his bright red hair after he finished naming all possible exit routes. "Good job, buddy."

I unwrapped the McMuffins one by one, setting six in front of each of us. "Dig in," I said quietly. Jack licked his lips, and nearly inhaled the first one that he picked up. I raised my eyebrows. Jack had been complaining that he was hungry, but he was clearly much more famished than the rest of us. Taking two of my six McMuffins, I placed them in front of the boy. He hardly noticed.

Jordan, who was sitting next to me, took one of hers and pushed it towards me. I shook my head. "Jordan, he was hungry. I'm sure you are too."

She smiled. "So are you. Take it."

I hugged her quickly and tightly, but it went unseen by the starving children sitting around us, who were all focused on their food. "Thanks."

"No problem, Wolfe," she said while she turned toward her food. I took the McMuffin she had handed to me and proceeded to take a barbaric bite out of it. The taste of the bread and meat together was heavenly compared to the food we'd been scrounging around for in the nearby wilderness.

For seven years, we'd been wandering around without any purpose other than to protect each other and survive another day. When the Erasers were around, it was worse. But now that the Erasers had seemed to have given up on us, it gave me time to think. What should I do with my life? Even for a mutant bird kid, I have to have some sort of use to benefit the world. That's why I was around, wasn't it?

The problem was figuring out what that purpose was. And to find it, I would have to face everything I'd ever known: the Erasers, the scientists, my feelings for my flock, and use it all to find why I existed. But would my flock stand with me, or abandon me and my reckless ways?

My thoughts had persisted like this throughout the entire meal, and as we made our way back up to the roof of a skyscraper so that we could take off again, I decided what the first step in my campaign should be.

Throughout our time on the run, we discovered that there was another human-avian hybrid group traversing the world. The Erasers constantly would ask us as we fought if we knew where a certain 'Maximum Ride' was. I had had no idea, but perhaps I could track her down. Maybe she would know what the purpose of a bird-kid's life was. Even if she didn't, it was the best lead I could come up with at the moment.

Before we took off, I stopped the others at the top of the building. "We need to do something," I said simply. I told them of the thoughts I had had in McDonalds. "We need to find that purpose," I insisted, ignoring the bewildered look on Jordan's face. "And I think that the first step in finding it is to find Maximum Ride."

"Maximum Ride?" Jordan asked. "Wolfe, we don't even know who she is! She could still work for the whitecoats! She could be dead! She might not even exist! For all we know she could just be some trick that the Erasers conned up to give us hope!"

"Just trust me on this, ok?" I said. "I know that I'm doing the right thing. For both of us."

"How do you know?"

"Last night, Jordan, I made you a promise. You know me. I may be irresponsible at times, but I keep my promises. I can just tell that this is the first step to working the odds in our favor."

Jordan sighed, and brushed some dark hair out of my eyes with soft fingertips. "Okay," she said. "I'm with you."

I smiled. "Thanks," I whispered. I turned to the rest. "What about you?"

"I'm always with you," Jack said with a grin. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The things were falling apart, but there was no way that we could afford another pair for him, so the poor boy had to keep patching them up.

Stormy put an arm around her best friend. "I'm going where Jack's going."

I smiled. "Good. Zeke?" The boy just nodded.

Jordan squeezed my shoulder. "I know we have our differences," she whispered in my ear, "but I want you to know that I think you're a great guy. Your heart's in the right place."

I put an arm around her shoulders briefly before unfolding my wings and taking off towards my hidden destiny.


	4. TV Really Isn't a Bad Thing

**A/N- I know... it's short. :/ I'm sorry! I'm working on it, though! I'm getting my Maximum Ride bug back, that's a good sign for this story!**

* * *

**TV Really Isn't a Bad Thing**

So, how exactly does a human/avian hybrid go about tracking another human/avian hybrid?

To be honest, I still have no idea. And I know a lot more now than I knew then. We'd been flying for about four hours, me going wherever, the others following. Zeke, Stormy, and Jack seemed content enough, but Jordan kept giving me strange looks. Okay, so we had some sort of heartfelt moment back there, but life goes on.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" she whispered.

That was when it hit me. We needed to have some sort of general lead before we just took off searching. I gave her a look, wincing.

"Come on, Wolfe. Let's land, I'm sure there have been some sort of strange sightings somewhere. Or we could look around the School."

I quickly shook my head at the mention of the School, which I could tell relieved Jordan some. "No way," I said. "Let's see if we can find a bar somewhere. They probably have a lot of people who know what's going on."

She arched one eyebrow at me. "You're crazy. Or did you forget that we have an _eight _year old with us?"

"Okay, okay, bad idea. But you have to admit, it would have been good if we were all older."

"I _have _to admit it?"

"Funny," I said with a roll of my eyes.

She shrugged. "I have a good sense of humor. Now, a real plan?"

"I don't know."

She gasped in mock surprise. "The one and only Wolfe Armstrong doesn't know what to do for once? What will the fangirls think?"

I have _fangirls_? Really? I didn't even know! Fangirls, raise your hands high, please! Okay, remind me to carve our initials on a tree.

Without anything to say back to that, _ahem_, fangirl comment, I led the flock down to what looked like a park. We were now in the suburban area around Boston, so we had to fly low to land, and, well, it unnerved me some. I'll admit it. But we didn't get spotted as we touched down on the soft grass, partly because it was nearly midnight, and in the safety of the suburbs, nobody was outside, and partly because I dove into a clump of bushes. It was actually pretty funny, how everyone followed suit. Well, except for Jordan. She landed in the grass, but, you know... She doesn't count.

Fangirls. Huh. I'm never gonna get over that.

"So!" I said, clapping my hands together in a strange habit of mine. I glanced over at Stormy and Jack, who were now picking twigs out of each other's hair. It reminded me of monkeys picking the bugs out of each other's fur. Except that Stormy and Jack didn't eat whatever debris they found. Yuck.  
"Alrighty, Maximum Ride is getting closer now, we just need to find a few more leads." Well look at me, liar liar pants on fire.

"I'm tired, though," Zeke whined.

"Lazy butt," I said jokingly. "Now seriously, we need to keep going. Remember what happens when we stay in one place?"

All eyes involuntarily slid to Zeke's useless arm. "Erasers," Jack said glumly.

"That's right. And who do we need to help us if we don't want the Erasers after us anymore?"

"Maximum Ride."

"Right again. Now move out."

"Move out _where_?" Jordan asked, a slight pang of irritation in her tone of voice. Getting snippy with me, eh, Miss "I think you're a great guy"? Well, then!

Well, what is most likely to report flying children sightings? Oh yeah, the nightly news. Where is the nightly news? On a TV. Where's the TV? In a house… in the suburbs… where we are. Ain't it cool how things work for us like that? It almost makes up for the freak status.

So, I explained my genius idea to the others. "Look, if they put every little UFO sighting on the news, might as well throw in some flying kids."

"And that matters why?" Stormy asked, huffing a little. What is it with the women in the flock giving attitude to me? I mean, really?

Jordan smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "I think I know where he's going with this. C'mon." Well, there's the Jordan I know and love… umm… like. As a friend. Just… I… Cue peeking through windows scene.

Ahem. So, we split up. Me with Jack and Stormy, and Jordan with Zeke. Now, we'd mostly slept around urban surroundings, but we had spent quite a few nights in other people's backyards, so I knew a TV room when I got a look at the window. All the flashing lights through otherwise dark rooms? Bingo.

So, we stopped and peeked through the first such window that we saw. Nothing really screamed 'news,' and as I looked closer, I realized it was a teenage couple, watching a chick flick. Huh, 27 Dresses. Jordan wanted to see that.

"Gross!" I heard Jack say. I glanced up. No, the car scene hadn't come yet.

"It's not gross, Jack, it's cute!" Stormy said, perhaps a bit dreamily. "And _he _is _cute_."

I followed her gaze to the two on the couch, who were having an… uh… "_ooh_- _la_- _la_" moment. Thinking quickly, I smacked a hand over each kid's eyes and pushed them backward. God knows what Jordan would do when she realized I let an eleven year old watch people making out. Stormy? She could handle it, she's thirteen. Jack? Not a chance. However, I kept my eyes on the dude's mouth. Who knows? I might learn a technique that I'll probably never use. Scratch that. After all, I do have the fangirls, am I right?

_Boo Yeah. _

"Next house," I whispered, moving to the next window with the telltale lights. No news, I was about to move on when I heard Jack's reaction to what was on the TV.

"Hey, Star Wars!"

"Jack, we don't have time to—" I stopped myself. "Wait, which one?"

"Episode Three," he replied, not taking his eyes off the TV. "Just started. Space battle scene."

I grinned. "Scoot over."

Stormy just sighed. "Geeks. We need to go."

"Nah, Jordan will find something," I said, putting my finger up in the universal "_Shut up_" gesture.

Turns out, Jordan did find something, after Stormy had gone back to watch 27 Dresses, and after Chancellor Palpatine was saved and Anakin started his absolutely annoying whining about the Jedi ways. I saw the blonde jogging toward me and quickly whispered to Jack, "Act like we just got here."

He nodded slightly, squinted, and said, "Nope, there's nothing here."

At that moment, Jordan was right next to us, Zeke with her. "I got it- Where's Stormy?"

"We split up again. Couldn't find anything," I lied. "Jack, you know which way she went, go get her."

"New York," Jordan said quietly. "Maximum Ride, and five others like us, are in New York."

There's six of them? Jackpot.

And they say that TV isn't good for you.


End file.
